Using Influence as an Advantage: Marketing With People, For people.

When most businesses think of using influence, it often comes down to using persuasive techniques or a brand that speaks to a large number of customers. Influencer marketing is using influential people to bring the business straight to consumers, on a more human level.

When it comes to comparing the persuasiveness of a 30-second generic ad vs a 30-second review by a former client, most people would rather have a former customer persuade them why the small business is worth their time because those people talk to them. A generic advertisement talks at them and doesn’t establish the human connection that a case study does.

Influencers can be anyone who can cause a change in a mindset or a behaviour, as long as they are persuasive an Influencer doesn’t have to be popular. The only benefit they have to bring the company is the ability to make them buy from the company they endorse, and every good influencer uses three tactics to achieve this goal.

First, the influencer can reach a large number of people either through social media, television, or another form of communication.

Then they will use their creditability on topics to gain trust from the audience, for example, if a perceived expert in fashion talks about a new trend, that person has high credibility, where if that same person spoke about dogs they wouldn’t gain the same level of credibility because they are not perceived as an expert.

Finally, the art of the sell is used to explain why the product or service benefits the audience, and most influencers are able to bring the audience around to their side with good communication skills and understanding.

Social media, Instagram in particular, is a good source for every small business owner to find key influencers, with most influencers having large numbers of followers for Instagram and other social media sites. With Instagram being very popular, especially among millennials, it’s a good bet to start looking for a target audience there.

Then an influencer can be hired to advertise a product, share a link, or make a post describing the product or service of a small business. The followers can then use the credibility of the influencer and be much more likely to click on the link or post that takes them to the company’s webpage or the Instagram account of the company.

Buying likes and followers for a social media page that is just for the company along with an Influencer’s endorsements can also boost the revenue and traffic to the website. By having the company’s Instagram account have several followers and likes, it will encourage those brought to the page by an influencer to stick around and endorse the posts on the page.

By using Influencer marketing and buying followers, it can produce a double team of revenue and traffic to the company’s social page and the website, allowing for more users to take a look at the products and services the company offers.